Injuries in Athletics: Causes and Consequences

Over the past decade, the scientific information on psychology of injury has increased considerably. Despite dramatic advances in physical education of coaches, field of medicine, athletic training, and physical therapy, the sport-related traumatic injuries is our major concern. Athletic injuries, both single and multiple, have a tendency to grow dramatically. Accordingly, prevention of sport-related injuries is a major challenge facing the sport medicine world today. The purpose of this book is to accumulate the latest development in psychological analyses, evaluation, and management of sport-related injuries, including traumatic brain injuries. No two traumatic injuries are alike in mechanism, symptoms, or symptoms resolution. There is still no agreement upon psychological diagnosis and there is no known comprehensive treatment for sport-related injuries for regaining pre-injury status. Physical symptoms resolution is not an indication of 'psychological trauma' resolution.

Semyon Slobounov, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology College of Health of Human Development, and Adjunct Professor of Orthopaedics and Medical Rehabilitation with Hershey Medical College at the Pennsylvania State University, with primary responsibilities to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of psychology of injury, neural basis of motor behavior, and psychophysiology. His coaching background and clinical work with numerous injured athletes for more than 25 years was instrumental for development of ideas and topics elaborated in this book. His research focused on neural basis of human movements with special emphasis on rehabilitation medicine, psychology and neurophysiology, including traumatic brain injuries. Dr. Slobounov is an adjunct investigator with the National Institute of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He also is an adjunct Professor of the Neuroscience and an affiliate Professor of Gerontology Center at Penn State. He received his first Ph.D. from the University of Leningrad, Department of Psychology, USSR in 1978 and his second Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Kinesiology in 1994.